Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller have a combined age of 163. That’s probably about the same number of shots some of us would take to poke it around formidable Oakmont. For the front nine.
This storied expanse of golfing terrain, sprawling out in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, tends to lead to the kind of punishing shift that’s the golfing equivalent of breaking rocks in a chain gang.
As the third round of the US Open was getting underway yesterday, the leaderboard showed that only three players were under-par for 36-holes.
The lead was held by Sam Burns at three-under. Funnily enough, when the aforementioned Nicklaus triumphed at Oakmont in the 1962 US Open, only three players were under-par at halfway. And the lead was three-under.
“One-under par won the tournament,” said Nicklaus of the eventual winning tally that gave him the first of his 18-major titles. “One-under par doesn't win a lot of tournaments today, but it did then.”
The way things are going this week, Jack, it might be good enough to win again come Sunday night. Time will tell.
The chances, meanwhile, of someone replicating Miller’s feat of 1973 and conjuring a dazzling 63 on the final day to win are probably as remote as the outer rings of Saturn.
Miller probably thought the chances of doing it himself were pretty outlandish too. It was the lowest round in major history, a record low that stood for 44 years.
Miller will never tire of talking about it. In fact, his iconic round has been talked about so much down the seasons, you half expect the passing years to have shaved another couple of shots off the card.
In the Oakmont media centre yesterday, it was time to talk about it again. Miller had been six shots off the pace heading into the final round of that ’73 showpiece after a 76 on day three.
Ahead of him on the leaderboard sat giants like Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer. By the end of the day, they were all left wheezing behind as Miller came with a triumphant charge that could’ve been accompanied by a rousing bugle call and mounted cavalry.
Miller hit all 18 greens in regulation. He took 29 putts. Ten of his approach shots landed within 15-feet while five were within six-feet.
His only bogey came on the par-3 eighth, a three-putt blemish which still annoys him to this day. In this game, there’s always something from a round that rankles, isn’t there?
Miller’s 76 in round three, meanwhile, certainly gave him plenty to ponder. “I was pretty down in the dumps after that,” reflected the 78-year-old. “I thought, ‘well, that's the end of that’.
“But I birdied the first four holes and thought, ‘dang, I was six back and I’m four-under now and the leaders might be nervous. I might only be one or two behind'.
“I got ahead of myself like a lot of golfers do when they think they're going to play the best round of their life. I got a surge of adrenaline and started to be very tentative. But after the fourth hole, I thought, ‘I've got a shot here if I can keep it up’.”
And he did. Winning at Oakmont requires a bit of everything. “Patience, basically that's what you have to have,” said Nicklaus of the importance of keeping the head while others can be losing theirs.
“Obviously you have to play good golf. But just be patient with it. The key to Oakmont to me was not three-putting.”
Keeping it on the straight and narrow, especially at a place like this, helps too.
“You see the guys that don't hit the fairway, like Bryson DeChambeau,” said Miller, with a subtle dig at the reigning US Open champion who missed the cut the other night.
“He was living in the rough there these last couple days. Of course, he gets to watch it on TV today.”
Whoever emerges victorious at Oakmont tonight will have displayed all these things and more. Nobody ever said winning was easy.
“You've got to be able to handle the US Open pressure,” said Miller. “With a a lot of guys, winning a US Open is a little out of their comfort zone. So, there's only a certain kind of player that can win a US, especially on Sunday.
“That's the greatness of golf. Jack liked to hang around the first three days and then on the last day he had a huge advantage. He believed in himself, and not only believed in himself, he could produce on that last round and handle the putt or the shot.”
The character and resolve of the current crop of US Open challengers will be revealed tonight.
